My Photo Journalhttps://ykgoh.wordpress.com
Making Memories
Mon, 21 Jan 2019 23:45:21 +0000 en
hourly
1 http://wordpress.com/https://secure.gravatar.com/blavatar/8e16e54fcc4f788d1f3b5563733388e7?s=96&d=https%3A%2F%2Fs0.wp.com%2Fi%2Fbuttonw-com.pngMy Photo Journalhttps://ykgoh.wordpress.com
A short break…https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/a-short-break/
https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/a-short-break/#respondSun, 18 Jan 2015 12:45:53 +0000http://ykgoh.wordpress.com/?p=1101Continue reading →]]>I had not been actively shooting(and blogging) for quite some time already…. (especially after the Iceland trip), and no thanks to a series of continuous rainy weekends.

It was only not long ago that I had seen the better weekends. Being stuck indoors for many weekends due to the bad weather makes me want to just go out and take some fresh air.

The first place I wanted to go is, back into the Flower dome.They have changed the Xmas theme to a Asian theme…

It was also a good time for me to play with my macro lens which was in the dry cabinet for quite some time. Really had quite a fun time using this lens and exploring the max magnification I can go to (when stacked with Raynox 250). Not that I will be shooting at those beyond 1:1 distance, but just for the fun of it…

Didn’t manage to shoot alot during then as the sun was setting and I want to get into position for Sunset.

From the start, shooting wasn’t really my main intention of taking a stroll outside. Unlike in the past where I rushed from point to point, I took a slow walk (even stopping at some spot to enjoy the cool breeze) to the sunset position.. Slowing down the pace does help to refresh the mind up.

Upon reaching the “usual” sunset spot, I just down there and wait….

Nothing exceptionally spectacular. Just a day for me to take my eyes off the computer screen and take things slow.

Come to think of it, days like this is really important… to relax the mind. I will probably want to have more of such days when possible. Let’s see how it goes then…

Regards,
YK

]]>https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2015/01/18/a-short-break/feed/0ykgoh5D3_3566Another sunsetAFA 2014https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/afa-2014/
https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/afa-2014/#respondWed, 10 Dec 2014 15:37:53 +0000http://ykgoh.wordpress.com/?p=1099Continue reading →]]>Just a few days ago, it was the AFA Singapore 2014. Unlike last year where I was shooting mainly cosplayers, this time round, I was spending more time shooting figurines.

The 100mm macro is really a awesome lens. Providing real close up to the mini figures… really different from what my previous setup can offer. *So far, the main thing I like about the macro lens is the focusing to infinity!!! *

Below are just a couple of figurines shots I have during the event.

These figurines really looks big now as compared to when I was using telephoto zooms (70-200) where I can never get it so big..

I will be hoping to find more time to shoot with this little gem. But December is always a month where I find that I’m short of time as there are so many events going on at the same time at different locations… not forgetting the social activities as well. Will see how it goes…

Regards,
YK

]]>https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/12/10/afa-2014/feed/0ykgoh5D3_26425D3_25675D3_2595Return to Flower Domehttps://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/return-to-flower-dome/
https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/return-to-flower-dome/#respondSun, 30 Nov 2014 15:17:57 +0000http://ykgoh.wordpress.com/?p=1097Continue reading →]]>It feels like an eternity since I was last here at the Flower Dome…. And now they have the Christmas Decos up in there…

And I was there to also play around with my 100mm macro Been on my mind for 2 years and finally got it.

For the camera body in this flower dome visit, I had with me, my mkIII, which just got discharged from CSC after a top cover replacement due to damages it suffered during the Iceland trip ( back during that trip, the main dial stopped working! )… So, this visit is also partially to fully check the replaced part.

During the short visit in the dome, I only had a few shots and the rest of the time is to figure out the focusing and the distance relation stuffs…

The snowman decoration there is reallly cute.

Most of the angles I shot are pretty similar to what I did in the past back when I was using 50mm + Raynox.

But during then, it can be irritating to not able to frame what I want, due to the focusing restriction. Because with the raynox, I can only focus at certain distance, nothing more, nothing less. Many times, this can be a great restriction.. But with this macro lens, I can really go close or back as much as I want….

The other welcomed feature is the auto focus (yes, I’m using auto focus for the close-up shots), as compared to the 50mm, the focus is faster and more accurate.

And the last thing I’ve noticed after I checked the pictures, is that, for the same framing I can get on the 50mm raynoxed, I get more depth of field! But still it doesn’t mean that I don’t have to stop down to f5.6 or smaller.

There is really alot of things I will want to experiment with the 100mm now, but I hope I have enough time before they remove those X’mas decorations there.

*It’s also about time to visit the annual faux snow event at Tanglin Mall…Should be going one of these days…

Regards,
YK

]]>https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/11/30/return-to-flower-dome/feed/0ykgohChristmas 2014 @ Flower Dome5D3_22815D3_2284Iceland 2014https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/iceland-2014/
https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/iceland-2014/#respondSun, 23 Nov 2014 11:05:14 +0000http://ykgoh.wordpress.com/?p=1092Continue reading →]]>It’s been almost 3 months since my last post…and almost 1 month since I’m back from Iceland with a group of friends. Just sharing a couple of shots I got from the 10 day trip (my trip of the year).

Kirkjufell

One of the most scenic waterfalls I’ve visited in the whole trip. We were lucky to catch this waterfall before the snow fell the following day. *I have the snow version, but I still prefer this… Still trying to fix the blue color cast from the LEE 10 stop filter*

Aurora Hunt outside the City

The only night we caught the aurora. It was only just after dinner when the aurora start to appear… It’s amazing to see the the aurora dance in the sky from horizon to horizon. A very short video of that night: Aurora Timelapse I wished I have a backup FF camera, enough to capture the whole action.. (my trusty 500D’s image quality at ISO3200 didn’t have the clarity at such ISO)

Around Guesthouse Kiljan

Well, it’s my first time seeing snow, naturally I will get excited by every little things like playing with snow, and seeing the cars and pavements, grass covered by snow. Things I’ve only seen in postcards right in front of my eyes. *Happy*

Thingvellir National Park

Another waterfall, but this time, at the Thingvellir National Park. The weather haven’t been very favorable for us during the trip, gloomy skies almost everyday. When we were at the waterfall, with the gloomy skies, I can only think of b/w at the back of my mind..

Seljalandsfoss

It’s really hard to shoot here… Limited by the amount of space. And not forgetting the water droplets made by the waterfall landing on the filters. And the large number of tourist walking past in front (which is the only way to get to the other side)

Glúfrafoss, waterfall in the mountain

The waterfall in the mountain. Had to get alittle wet to get in. But we left our gears outside after accessing the situration that it’s not really a scene that we can shoot without the water droplets landing on the lens/filter/etc.

Seljalandsfoss Startrailing

Was hoping to catch some aurora that day, end up doing star trails… Key lesson learnt… Stars moves slowly at different part of the world… A whole 40mins and it didn’t move that much… A short Timelapse using the frames for the above shot: Startrail Timelapse

Energy

Pieces of ice broken off from the ice mountain washed on shore…Ice of all shapes and sizes. Really like this place. Really wished that the weather to be better than that overcast skies.

Now, after the trip and looking back, the 10 days we spent in Iceland felt really short! Just 3 days after I return to work, I’m already missing it already…. But I guess it might be many many years If I ever return to Iceland… Have quite some list in my want-to-go list…

Now to return back to reality and work hard to achieve those…

Regards,
YK

]]>https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/11/23/iceland-2014/feed/0ykgohKirkjufellAurora HuntLast Look at Guesthouse KiljanWaterfall @ Thingvellir National ParkSeljalandsfossGlúfrafossSeljalandsfoss StartrailingEnergyNight Festival 2014 – Phoenixhttps://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/night-festival-2014-phoenix/
https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/night-festival-2014-phoenix/#respondFri, 29 Aug 2014 16:57:04 +0000http://ykgoh.wordpress.com/?p=1089Continue reading →]]>It’s kinda rare for me to post up photos, just a couple of hours after the shoot…. well, this time round, I kept it simple…. Straight out of camera (RAW > JPG with abit of cropping)

For today’s shoot, it’s mainly about the Fire performance by “Phoenix”, from Austria. Their performance tonight is amazing, one of the best I’ve seen in Singapore public performance.

A couple of photos from the event.

There will still be another show tomorrow (30th August 2014), if you are interested to be catching their performance. But be warned, this place is VERY crowded…

As I’ve always enjoyed any form of fire performance, I will likely be there again tomorrow if time permits after shooting other parts of the Night Festival which I’ve yet to cover.

Technical stuffs

Been a while since I’ve this section here… I’m still using the same old method of matrix metering in shutter priority mode and mainly controlling the exposure via the exposure compensation. I find that this gives me the most time to react to most scenario.

Also, since it’s going to be dark, I’m quite sure that for most shots, it’s going to be shot at f2.8 wide open, just frame according to the DOF (I did have abit of mis focused shots)

As for flash, I personally do not like using flash in public performances like this. First, it’s quite annoying to spectators and secondly, It’s one more thing I got to adjust which means lesser time to think, compose and shoot.

I also did some bracketing for a couple of scenes where I can’t get the exposure right within 3-5 shots. That helped to get the exposure right…

Processing of the shots…. This is one of the rare few times, which I just converted the RAW > JPEG with cropping (on one of the photo). Conversion was done in Lightroom with Camera Calibration set to “Camera Standard”, this helped to retain (if not, get as close to) the colors which I see on my Camera.

I’m not sure if this is the best way to be processing those shots, but it looks fine to me… Maybe I’ll go over them again when I’m clearing my folders of photos…

Regards,
YK

]]>https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/08/30/night-festival-2014-phoenix/feed/0ykgoh5D3_84305D3_85295D3_85725D3_86905D3_8743Singapore Garden Festival 2014https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/singapore-garden-festival-2014/
https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/singapore-garden-festival-2014/#respondSun, 24 Aug 2014 13:30:31 +0000http://ykgoh.wordpress.com/?p=1087Continue reading →]]>It’s been awhile since I’ve last posted anything…. Not that I had stopped shooting, just that I ran out of stuffs to write about. Mostly stuffs that happened on other weekends are pretty mundane. Going around the city and shooting the same things over and over again.

Well, just for the weekend (Friday and Saturday), there was the Annual Night Festival and the Singapore Garden Festival (held every 2 years). So there was abit more happening stuffs to shoot.

But for now I’ll just write abit on the Garden Festival…

Personally, It’s different from how I imagined… At first I was thinking of a big place with potted plants of different species from different countries…..

The moment I entered the event space (this year, it’s held at The Meadows @ Gardens By the Bay), I know that it’s going to be totally different from my expectations.

*It’s my fault for not reading up more on it before I came -_-*

The first display I saw when I entered the hall.

The garden festival is really about Garden… and plants(nature) and the modern world. Not so much about the plants and different species :p

In this event, one shall see the different designs of how plants “live” with the world we live in.

There are a whole lot of other similar genre installations to visit. The installations are really nice to look at. But I can’t find any suitable way to capture them in the photo..

Moving along the hall, there’s the miniature garden display… Due to the fast moving single lane crowd, one will not have the luxury to stand in the lane and shoot into the glass displays.A Miniature garden display….

Another miniature display.

Wished I could spend more time re-shooting some of these. well, anyway…moving on in the event hall, I’m already lost at which area am I in or what am I looking at already -_-

At this stage of being lost, I just shoot whatever comes into mind….

Ice Queen, Singapore Garden Festival 2014 display.

Something for sure, this is NOT a place you can finish shooting within 1 or 2 days… I’ve spent a good 4 hours in the place and not covered 1/2 the place. (and I’ve ran out of energy by the 4th hour, simply tired…)

To add on, this event hall space at Meadows is not all… there’s more at the flower dome. Just that the displays at the flower dome is until late September. So I will visit there once the crowd level subsides..

Shooting these art works is really very different from what I’ve been shooting all along… or rather what I’ve been shooting lately. In the recent months, I’m mainly into shooting landscapes or cityscapes. Shooting stuffs in this event is really challenging for me.

*I finally realized what my friend meant by “don’t ask me which art works is the award wining one” and “don’t ask me to name the name of this art work”…. I can only remember 1 or 2 at best… Those that caught my attention*

After the “hellish” 4hours, I took a breather somewhere and to rest my feet before I went for the night event… The Night Festival.. I’m still busy trying to get the photos sorted out.

Not sure if I can get them up during the week. Will post them up once I’m done with it.

Regards,
YK

]]>https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/08/24/singapore-garden-festival-2014/feed/0ykgoh5D3_74175D3_74335D3_74605D3_74495D3_74975D3_75345D3_75785D3_7512Weekend Getaway to Batu Pahathttps://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/07/22/weekend-getaway-to-batu-pahat/
https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/07/22/weekend-getaway-to-batu-pahat/#commentsTue, 22 Jul 2014 13:23:47 +0000http://ykgoh.wordpress.com/?p=1083Continue reading →]]>As part of the “training” to practice shooting the Milky Way before the main event, a small group of us packed up and went over to Batu Pahat, Malaysia for a short weekend. It’s about 2hrs drive away from Singapore. Before the sun goes down, we scouted the place that we will want to “plant” ourselves when shooting the Milky Way.

Starry night by the jetty (14mm, f2.8, 25s, ISO3200)

After the initial scout, it’s not very long before the night came.

Before the night came, we were still worried that we might not be able to see the Milky Way as it was very cloudy during Sunset. But after dinner, when we returned to the place, we saw that it’s a CLEAR sky! It’s the clearest one I’ve seen for the Malaysia trips so far. (to be exact, we had bad weather for the almost all the other trips).

After the practice at Mt. Bromo, composing for this scene is much easier with the light pollution in the area :p Once I had my shot, I just sat back and enjoy the starry view above me while the rest continue to shoot. No matter how many times I gaze upon it, I still feel that it’s a wonderful sight to behold.

Now I’m really looking forward to the big trip coming in a few months time…

Regards,
YK

]]>https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/07/22/weekend-getaway-to-batu-pahat/feed/1ykgohMilky Way @ Batu PahatThe world in another light….https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/the-world-in-another-light/
https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/the-world-in-another-light/#respondTue, 15 Jul 2014 13:00:49 +0000http://ykgoh.wordpress.com/?p=1081Continue reading →]]>About 3 weeks ago, I managed to borrow an (Infrared) IR modded camera from a friend and it was only until last weekend that I had the chance to get to shoot with it. The weekends before this were very gloomy and not ideal for IR shooting.

Seeing the sunny weather on Sunday, I made a trip down to Gardens By the Bay again.

Greeted by one of the most prominent view in GBTB

Previously, I would not have considered this view to shoot. But since I’m out there trying to see what looks good in IR and what not, I just shot. After the custom white balance set on the camera, all greens will become white and everything with a strong red cast… So, most of the things can only be decided behind the monitor for me. But in general, I can “feel” how it will turn out but due to my lack of experience in processing IR, I also cannot guess how it will turn out completely.

So all my shots are shot based on my ‘feeling’ on composition and lots of guess work. Whether or not they become great subject after the post processing is another… which I will select during the post processing time.

Here’s another view that in usual colors, won’t turn out very nicely… But in IR, the trees become more “obvious”.

Now comes my favorite subject in the whole GBTB. Personally, I feel that this structure looks great in both color and IR. And honestly, I didn’t expect the skies to turn out in this manner. It had a “dark aura” around this building…. kinda dark, but I like it!

And for the processing of the above shots, I only did a simple channel swap and some contrast boost… And I thought that’s all. It was until today that my friend had shown me an alternate workflow to it…

With that workflow it’s possible to get some cool effects too… Just that I need to be extremely careful with the color noise introduced when I’m happily tuning the colors in the curves. The above show some color noise, but I left it alone.

Now the next thing to try this IR mod cam on is the stars… Hope to be able to see some decent stars in my upcoming short trip..

Technical Stuffs

The reason I used the Samyang 14mm is because it’s a manual lens with a long focus throw, and it’s pretty wide.

A few notes when using a modded IR camera. If you have replaced the filter glass element of the with a different thickness IR filter, your auto focus will be slightly off. This is the case for the modded 400D. It’s slightly off when using auto focus. And also, it does not have live view. So focusing manually will be a pain when not using a camera with micro adjust (if it’s not too severe). Thankfully, the long focus throw of the samyang makes it easy to focus.

The other thing to note is the exposure metering. Since it’s capturing different light, it requires a different metering. In short, the camera metering is practically useless. A guideline I tried using with success is over exposing the scene by 2 stops from the normal light meter in partial metering mode (400D does not have spot metering). This had got me most of the scene exposure correct.

For the last shot, I just played with the curves of different color. There’s a whole new ‘universe’ in the curves to explore and try out..

But for now, I will just play with this IR camera and the basic processing.

Regards,
YK

]]>https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/07/15/the-world-in-another-light/feed/0ykgohIMG_5323-EditIMG_5388-EditIMG_5383-EditIMG_5373-EditFireworks again!!!https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/fireworks-again/
https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/fireworks-again/#respondSun, 13 Jul 2014 12:41:59 +0000http://ykgoh.wordpress.com/?p=1079Continue reading →]]>It’s been a few weeks since I’ve updated the blog… But for the past few weekends, It’s nothing other than fireworks fireworks and still fireworks. It’s the National Day Parade Rehearsals Fireworks again. In one of those weekend I finally found the place where I initially failed to locate.

2nd NDP Rehearsals Fireworks

This is one of those “newer” view that popup on my Facebook newsfeed some weeks ago. The first attempt to find the place didn’t end too well. But for the 2nd attempt, the place was located and I camped for fireworks that happened that evening (the 2nd NDP Rehearsal). There wasn’t alot of fireworks that day, which is a good thing for me… Lesser fireworks smoke in the air.

Other view from the same place on a different date (a wet morning). IMO, the view from this place is pretty awesome.

After I had got my fill of shooting from this place, I went back to the usual spot for fireworks. If you aren’t very familiar with the popular locations. Here are some of it.

Esplanade Outdoor Theatre (almost the whole stretch is available, the stretch ends before the floating platform)

Esplanade Rooftop (Note: this place is restricted on National Day itself)

Marina Bay Sands (The whole stretch, from the Art Science Museum to the Pier)

Here’s one I caught last night… at Esplanade Rooftop with a truck load of photographers (you can see the line of photographers on the right, It’s a restaurant on the left, which explains the no-crowd)

Technical details of the above shot, I would have liked to use a single shot for the frame, but without tilting, it won’t be possible. As I was using a 14mm, any tilt is going to cause a whole lot of problems during processing, so I chose to do a panoramic shot. I will likely be re-processing this image sometime again later. As I didn’t quite like some of the things I did during the processing part. But at the moment, I’m quite filled up with some fun stuffs to experiment with…. InfraRed (IR) Photography… Seems quite fun for now. Will be posting those along the week.

Regards,
YK

]]>https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/07/13/fireworks-again/feed/0ykgoh5D3_3439-Edit5D3_3513-Edit5D3_3515-Edit-2FireworksRevisiting places…https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/06/15/revisiting-places/
https://ykgoh.wordpress.com/2014/06/15/revisiting-places/#respondSun, 15 Jun 2014 12:21:55 +0000http://ykgoh.wordpress.com/?p=1077Continue reading →]]>I was supposed to be shooting cosplays over the weekend at City Hall… But for some reason, I couldn’t find the joy/excitement to shoot the event anymore… unlike when I first started off shooting cosplayers. It’s not the first time this year that I went to the event and left without firing a shot. Anyway, due to my dropping interest of shooting the event, I left that place early and went exploring for the place where I saw some nice shots from.

Sunset @ Clarke Quay

The search for that place wasn’t successful (kinda expected) and I decided to look for it another time after I do abit more research on that angle that shot was taken. And since it was nearing sunset timing, I just thought of returning to some classic common place to shoot in Clarke Quay (since I’m in the area).

This is one of the most common spot you can find in Clarke Quay. On “epic” sunset days, you can find many photographers along the stretch where I was standing. But that day was just a ‘normal’ sunset. And I was just killing time and resting myself after an unsuccessful exploration.

*Despite the same composition I’ve shot past, I still felt happier shooting it than returning to the cosplay event. It may be possible that I need a long break from those events before I recover that feeling to want to shoot again*

Clarke Quay – Lights On

As like other cityscape shoots, I stayed alittle after the sunset to catch the lightup of the buildings and structures.

I really hope I can recover my mood to also get more active in shooting cityscapes or landscapes. Ever since returning from Mt. Bromo, I’m getting lazier by the day…